August the 27th, 2021 - Croatian festival organisers like those from Ontodei have turned towards the ever-popular beer business as the second year of festivals in Croatia being severely hindered by the pandemic shows no signs of letting up.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, Croatian festival organisers have had an enormous amount of time to twiddle their thumbs and sit worrying about their futures as a result of the global pandemic. Some, however, have decided to branch out. The young entrepreneurs involved with the brands Saso Mange and Freemental are not giving up despite the dire circumstances, and this summer they started developing their second project, craft beer production.

The Saso Mange brewery was opened in Zagreb's Gajnice on July the 1st this year, in which 1.5 million kuna and many hours of work in the former printing house have been invested so far. The first two beers, Saso Mange Hairy Blonde and Choppy Apa entered the Croatian market, through cafes and specialty stores, followed by a web shop with delivery options available.

The label is signed by artist Miro Zupa and designer Bojan Kanizaj, and the brand name Saso Mange comes from the Romani language and means "there is everything/ima svega". Additional investments are already being made for the winter, and the plan is to connect the story with festivals, revealed Filip Ledinscak, the co-founder and director of Vopisada.

"Apart from the direct sales we've already started with, our plan is to have our own sales channel through the Freemental festival, which we hope will start up again next summer. Beer production and music festivals are related projects that have always been in our plans, but the pandemic has certainly affected the realisation and dynamics. As we decided to postpone the festival we were developing on Cres this summer, we've now decided to start with the brewery,'' Ledinscak explained.

Along with him, his partners from Ontodei, Croatian festival organisers, Filip Filipi and Matija Santro, entered the beer business, while the fourth founder, Daniel Derencinovic, is the main production operator.

The whole entrepreneurial story started to mature about ten years ago, when they built their own soundsystem as sound engineers, which they rented to other festivals, and five years ago they decided to start their own. The coronavirus pandemic thus interrupted them in the increasingly serious project of the Freemental festival.

"On Cres, it turned out that we had a great product with good prospects. There are few such festivals by the sea in Europe, and the vision is to make an exclusive festival with a maximum of 3.5 thousand people. We'd rather make two smaller ones than one large festival with ten thousand people, in order to have a minimal impact on the environment and maintain the quality of the content. In the second edition of that, we introduced a lot more content in Freemental, in 2020 the plan was to further enrich it and develop a really serious story, but then the pandemic struck. We weighed in on this year, but this is a festival in which we still need to invest significantly, and the uncertainty of the event would be very risky for us financially.

So, we've now turned to the brewery, and I believe that as early as next summer the situation will be much more favourable to continue with the festival where we left off. I have no doubt about that because everyone who is collaborating on the project can't wait for us to start again,'' Ledinscak pointed out.

From next summer on, both projects should be "driven" in parallel. Vopisada expects a return on investment in the brewery and earnings in three to five years. The brewery is now at a capacity of 50 thousand litres per year, but around the New Year they'll continue to invest to triple the capacity, to 150 thousand litres per year, with two employees.

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With dedication and commitment to quality and the improvement of every step of production, the Medvedgrad brewery is continuing to press forward, owing to the more than impressive result of their successful Funderbeam campaign.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of May, 2019, the brand new Medvedgrad brewery has opened its doors. On Friday, the most modern brewery in the region and beyond was presented to journalists and investors, this is the culmination of both hard work and success in the year in which Medvedgrad is celebrating its 25th birthday.

Next Saturday, on May the 11th at 14:00, everything will be ready for the public, who the Medvedgrad brewery have invited to visit the premises, enjoy a variety of sixteen Medvedgrad's beers, a rich food supply and an open-air music program which will go on until midnight.

The new brewery is the result of a very successful Funderbeam campaign, which took place at the end of 2017, and through which a million euros was collected in a record nine days from 292 investors in 26 countries.

The work of Medvedgrad's masters which has been going on for more than a year now has been successfully completed, and its result now makes it possible to produce around 40,000 litres of beer in just one single day. The beer will now sit in a cellar with a capacity of almost 500,000 litres.

"This is the most beautiful present for our 25th birthday, but we're not going to stop there. We're organising the Fakin Craft Fest, a birthday party in the brewery's yard in September and the traditional beer distribution at the end of the year, when we'll distribute 2,500 litres of beer,'' stated Medvedgrad Brewery's Ivan Nauković.

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An unusual but excellent agreement on cooperation signed between one Croatian university and Carlsberg Croatia is set to bring students closer to their potential employers, and connect theory and practice to help keep young people in Koprivnica.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of November, 2018, on Wednesday, November the 14th, 2018, a press conference was held at the North University at the University Centre in Koprivnica, where the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Koprivnica educational facility and no less than Carlsberg Croatia was held. The press conference was attended by Helle M. Petersen, the president of Carlsberg Croatia's management board, dr. sc. Mario Tomiša, the vice president of the Koprivnica University Centre, associate professor. dr. sc. Vlado Tropša, the vice chancellor for teaching and student affairs, as well as other heads of study programs of the aforementioned University.

With signing the said cooperation agreement, a period begins in which students and the Koprivnica brewery (part of the Danish Carlsberg Group) are expected to find ways to work together. Student practices, the visiting of various experts from Carlsberg at the university, as well as connecting through other projects will be mutually beneficial.

Helle M. Petersen, CEO of Carlsberg Croatia, noted during the introductory part of the conference: "The collaboration of the economy and educational institutions is the only safe way for the whole society to progress. Koprivnica is a wonderful place to live, with many advantages offered by its residents, and for young people to remain here we need to connect a professional perspective to it, too. At Carlsberg, we're proud that we've always been a learning organisation and have been developing our people, and that's why we want young people to recognise the benefits of working in an international environment, a company that deals with such a passionate and interesting thing, as is beer production.''

Assoc. prof. dr. sc. Mario Tomiša emphasised that this cooperation will strengthen the link between Koprivnica and international companies: "Koprivnica is a small town, and we who were born here have been living with Carlsberg since our youth, our family, friends and our associates work there, the Carlsberg connection is a long-standing and powerful one, and North University wants this link to be deepened even further, to the satisfaction of all three sides.''

During the conference, Tomiša emphasised that the agreement encompasses cooperation on scientific research and professional projects, cooperation on teaching at the university in question, as well as in the development of knowledge, skills and competences of students.

"We're happy that Carlsberg Croatia has recognised the quality of our studies and has decided to support us in an effort to provide students with more through their studies. Lifelong education, programs which connect theory and practice, and connecting students with their potential employers; these are all areas in which the university has impressive results. This year, the university opened up a new undergraduate degree in Food Technology, and in the second and third year, we focus on beer production. Today, we have 27 study programs at the university, so we can cooperate with Carlsberg on a series of other directions such as economic and technical logistics, sustainable mobility and logistics, media design, business, and management,'' concluded Tomiša.

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